Okemo was relatively desolate this weekend, as only the hardy skiiers ventured out for early season skiing. It was cold, roughly 25F each day, and they were blowing snow on a number of trails. There wasn't that much open, maybe 30 trails, because last weeks warm spell had wiped out the Thanksgiving weekends Alberta clipper dump. Still they did have some trails open for top to bottom cruising. Conditions were machine groomed large grain crystals. It seems like a good idea to sneak onto trails that have fresh blown snow on them...until you actually try going through the stuff which has the texture of mashed potatoes left out for a day...it has to be blown and then churned up to be useful. One thing about having the mountain to yourself -- you tend to ski way too fast, piling up 10,000 vertical an hour, and lapping the main lift if you fly. The problem is that skiing fast tends to put more strain on my whole body as more energy has to get absorbed by the muscles, joints and ligaments/tendons. My back stiffened up on the ride home.
Which sort of brings up the whole cost structure...skiing is expensive in the East because structurally all this stuff takes lots of energy and resources. For relatively few people one has to
run lifts (same cost no matter how few people are there)
maintain ski patrols and snowmobile emergency units
light and heat all the various mountain huts (ever multiplying too)
maintain a snowmaking pond
blow snow (lots of electricity/compressed air)
carry liability insurance
conduct advertising (somewhat discretionary admittedly)
I'm sure there's more when I think about it -- but I can't imagine any of these Eastern resorts are really making money in early season given these fixed costs. And this is still with with day passes clocking in north of $60 !
PS: I'd agree with most of this list, although I'm no expert.
http://away.com/skiing/ski_best_for.tcl?Top_Ski_Resorts_for_Expert&id=293365
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